Distillers grains are the byproduct of distillation and fuel ethanol production. They have a long history of being fed to livestock. The tremendous growth of the ethanol industry in the past 20 years has greatly increased the supply of distillers grains to be used as a feedstuff.

What are they? The use of live micro-organisms as feed supplements for ruminants is not a new concept. Particularly, feeding large amounts of “beneficial” microbes to livestock under stress or confronted with a disease challenge. Microbial products used in this manner were originally called “probiotics,” or products “for life.” However, the term “probiotic” implied a curative nature.